Hi, my name is Kelechi Ibe and I am the founder of this blog, ibewealth.com 

The purpose of this page is to explain to you how I came to make money from the Internet.

My mentor had taught me long ago that the foundation of any long term Internet business ALWAYS begins with setting up your own personal blog. He told me it was my own “Online Real Estate” and boy was he correct.

I soon realized that having your own blog is like owning your own business- You control everything.

You control what content you put in it, you can control how much you charge for your products and service, you decide the type of people you want to attract to your website by choosing a specific niche market and so on.

So I started doing my research like any passionate aspiring Entrepreneur would do and I stumbled across some top Internet Marketers.     I did a fast case study of all of them and surprisingly I found that they all had one thing in common…. They ALL had their own personal “Online Real Estate” a.k.a Blog.

So I immediately called my mentor and asked for his affiliate link so I could purchase my domains and web hosting.

I made a quick conscious DECISION to just go ahead and start my own blog ….

Same decision that you can make today.

 The key word here is DECISION.

This quote by Sir Walter Raleigh might come in handy for you if you are still on the edge of getting started with your own business.

Don’t look at a thing; Start it.

Don’t imagine that it is too difficult; Start it. 

Don’t put it off for a day; Start it.

Don’t look for someone else to do it; Start it.

Don’t pretend that you must think it over; Start it.

Don’t start halfheartedly; put everything you can muster into your start.

“It can’t be done”, but with a forceful start you can do it.

If I hadn’t started I wondered where my life would’ve been by now.

How I Made My First Dollar Online

My first ever commission online came from selling a hostgator web hosting package that paid me a $50 commission. I had met a guy on facebook who saw my blog and liked it and then requested that I show him how I got my blog setup. At that time the only skill I have learned from my mentor is setting up a blog from scratch to finish. So I immediately offered to help him set up is blog for free because I knew if I did I would get a commission from hostgator by using my affiliate links.

As you can imagine $50 is not a lot of money.. but that was a start.

Later I got hired as a freelancer and worked for the IT company that my mentor ran. I literally worked long hours for him NOT for the money, but because I knew if I worked for him, he will gladly dedicate some few hours of his time to teach me what I needed to know about making real money on the Internet.

All Entrepreneurs were once an Apprentice

I saw this as an Opportunity to be educated

My First “Ah Ha” Moment

After months of studying the concept of Attraction Marketing (i.e. attracting visitors online to your websites) and learning about Online Branding, I finally decided it was time I started teaching others what I know. So In 2010 I launched my first blog full time which was.. www.ibewealth.com which I used to share all my knowledge that I slowly acquired.

I would attend webinars on various trending Internet Marketing topics and take notes. When am done with the webinar, I always went back to my blog to published all that I have learned so others could see it.

Slowly but surely I started getting some traffic and comments on my blog….until on day I got an idea — actually my mentor brought it up… (see why a having a mentor is important?).

He said to me, since you now know how to build a website….Why don’t you leverage that and try to offer your services through your blog?

Notice what happens next.

Without even thinking about it (Decision making), the next day I had a page on my website that says “Let Me Build Your Website” and I put a price tag of $197 with a delivery time of 5 days, which was a very competitive price.

Days passed, weeks…. and then months. Until one fateful day I got the best email of my life.

Subject: I would like your Blog Setup services.

Email body: I just visited your blog and I would like for you to design a similar blog for me

My jaw dropped!

I refreshed my email to see if I was hallucinating and have begun imagining things.

I clicked the refresh button on the top of my browser like 4 times and the email was still there… LOL  (and I said to myself.. this is probably for real)

We agreed to the deal and guess what, I didn’t build his blog in 5 days….

I stayed up all night and in 2 days his blog was ready.

Out of excitement, I went the extra mile and over delivered for him by making his blog ready before the time I have told him…

“I was REALLY hungry for SUCCESS”

I could see the potentials now

I collected my payment through Paypal and even made an extra $50 commission because I used my Affiliate links to get his blog hosted.. so in total I had made $247… (Not too shabby for a start). That was the first sale I made with my blog.

After that experience I went ahead to setup 3 more blogs in the space of 3 months and I charged $197 for each services.

So the moral of the story is this:  To be an Entrepreneur, you must be a problem solver. The more problems you solve for people, the more money you will eventually be making. Entrepreneurship is all about offering quality services to people who need it….  

Your job is to start acquiring those skills and then finding ways to monetize it.

I Started Monetizing My Ideas.

I thought to myself,  hmmm …. since I know how to build a website now… It’s actually a smart move to invest some time in creating my own product about building a website. In this product, I will have step by step videos showing people how to build a website from scratch and I will also have my affiliate links in them so that when they follow my videos, they will buy the services through my link and then I make a commission… This is referred to as “Affiliate Marketing”.

So rather than waiting for clients, I created my first ever product called Blogging For Marketers 2.0. Which was a A-Z guide to building a website.

It sold for $27 and though it wasn’t $197 like I charged when I did it manually, I still had the opportunity to make some profit from the recommendations I made inside the course it self. Plus I now had an asset that I can sell over and over again.

I sold lots of copies of my ebook, and I still sell it till today.

 How I Doubled My Income

I doubled my income by personally hanging out and learning from other top marketer in this industry…

I did this through going to Live Events.

Because here is the thing….

If you expect any type of success in business, you MUST cultivate the habit of Networking with successful people. 

Entrepreneurship is a TEAM sport and you have to constantly be learning new trends from other successful marketers.

Most people think that the key to success is by looking for the “best program, or the best affiliate system”…. This thinking is SO shallow and people who finds answers outside of themselves are really missing the point.. because the answer to their success lies within them… and it will come out by surrounding yourself with the right kind of people

“The easiest way to success is by following the footsteps of those that have succeeded before you.
                                                                                                             - Napoleon Hill

Also the saying is true that “if you want to know your income, simply calculate the average incomes of the people you spend the majority of your time with and you will get your income.”

So for example,  if 5 of your very close friends or associates are making only $3,000 per month… guess what… thats  $15,000 divided by 5… which is $3,000.

Same goes with the higher bracket incomes….

Moral of the Story: Birds of the same feathers, flock together…. and If you want to fly and soar with Eagles, you can not be spending too much of your precious time hanging around with ducks.

If you want to be successful as an Entrepreneur, you need to make Entrepreneurs your friends.

Hanging out with other successful people, I immediately started noticing a difference in the way I think, the way I talk etc. My vocabulary started changing and instead of using words like “I can’t” I started using words like “How Can It be done”.   Because if this person did it,… then it certainly is possible for me to do it as well.

Had I not gone to live events and see that people who succeeded are just regular people like me who took more action and are more consistent than I do, I would still be thinking that there was a “special secret to success”

The Secret to Success is that there are NO secrets to Success

Success when it comes, comes by applying definite principles over a long period of time.

So what am I trying to say here…

To be successful, you MUST form the habit of masterminding and networking with people who have the results that you crave.

Napoleon Hill the author of the Famous book Think and Grow Rich calls this process of networking… “Forming a Mastermind Alliance” 

 So by learning from these guys my income quadrupled…. plain and simple.

I started learning how to generate TONS of leads on the Internet

I also learned from one of my role models Yaro Starak the art of monetizing a blog by offering ad spaces and sponsorships.

So today a huge chunk of my income comes from advertisers placing their banners around my website…

I also get commissions from Google Adsense ads around my website so that when people click on my Google ads, Google shares 60% of the revenue with me (this is another powerful strategy because it is income that comes from doing ABSOLUTELY nothing… When ever someone clicks on the Google ad links on my website and goes to the advertisers website, I make money…. isn’t that amazing )

I learned this from him.

Even if you look at his blog, you will see that I modeled mine to look like his…

Because Yaro has made $1 million + on the Internet… so it is only wise to follow his steps.

All This Sounds Good Kelechi So How Do I Start?

Find a mentor

If you want to learn first hand from me on how to leverage the Internet to create multiple sources of income, you can easily do that by visiting my “How Do I Start” page and register for my A-College-Entrepreneur Newsletter.

In here, I have layered down all the process I used to create a successful business online.

Also with that medium I can connect with you and hopefully chat with you personally.

See this as your first test on decision making.

I hope my story has inspired you to start your own business. Because quite frankly, owning your own business is the ONLY way to financial freedom.

Exchanging your time with money is modern day slavery.  YOUR business on the other hand will buy you your freedom from this tough economy. And this was always something I wanted…. time freedom to enjoy my life with my family and friends..

So, Let Your Journey Begin

I’ll speak to you soon.